The Washington Capitals were on ice Friday morning for a practice as they prepare to take on the Rangers in game one of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Saturday afternoon. Some updates from Kettler Capitals Iceplex:

Predictably, the news was that there was little news out of Arlington. The lines remained the same: Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer, Johansson-Backstrom-Semin, Chimera-Beagle-Hendricks, Knuble-Aucoin-Ward, and Sjogren-Perreault-Halpern. The defensive pairings remained the same, too, with Jeff Schultz taking reps with Dennis Wideman and Dmitry Orlov and John Erskine on the fourth pair.

One cool note from practice, however, was that winger Joel Ward received a standing ovation from fans and his teammates when he took to the ice. Ward, who was the victim of an outpouring of racial abuse on Twitter following his goal in seven against the Bruins, has handled the situation with grace and class. Props to the patrons of Kettler for giving him a hand.

That's all for now. As always, follow me on Twitter here for news and updates.

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